


Ten Years After

by Dillian



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types
Genre: AU Ten Years After the Anime, All the Yamis Have Their Own Bodies, F/M, Infidelity, Love, M/M, Marriage, Pegasus' Machinations, Pregnancy, Prideshipping, Puzzleshipping, Romance, Yamishipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26365861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dillian/pseuds/Dillian
Summary: After the Ceremonial Duel, all the Yamis were given their own bodies.  They went and lived their various lives.  I'll cover what most of them are doing, before this story is over.  Kaiba opened the Duel Academy.  He hired Jou, Yuugi and Mai, to work as teachers.  Then Mai left to go live with Pegasus.  After that, some things happened.  This is the story of what happened.
Relationships: Bakura Ryou/Yami Bakura, Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto, Kaiba Seto/Yami Yuugi | Atem, Mutou Yuugi & Yami Yuugi | Atem, Pegasus J. Crawford | Maximillion Pegasus/Kujaku Mai | Mai Valentine, Yami Bakura/Yami Marik/Yami Yuugi
Kudos: 2





	Ten Years After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DaimeryanRei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaimeryanRei/gifts).



**[Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters** **  
****Characters: Moutou Yuugi, Jounuchi Katsuya, Pegasus J. Crawford, Kujaku Mai** **  
****Author’s note: This is a fan work, meant for enjoyment only and not for any material profit.]**

Prologue, five years ago: Two friends are at the bakery after work. Two, when it’s normally three. The three friends, all teachers at Kaiba’s Duel Academy, who always go to this bakery across from the campus, after the first day of the Fall semester.

“Mai couldn’t make it?” Moutou Yuugi has a dish of vanilla ice cream with sliced strawberries. At 22, he’s been teaching at the Dueling Academy for almost three years now. He was very happy this year, when he heard Kaiba Seto just hired his best friend. But he’s kind of disappointed when he sees that Kujaku Mai isn’t here as well.

His best friend has a plate heaped with pastries. “These things…” Jou nabs an eclair just as it slides off the pile. He takes a bite, talks through custard and chocolate. “Fancy. Don’t look like you could get more than a bite out of any of them. And so expensive!”

“I told you Jounuchi-kun, my treat.” Yuugi, always ready to help a friend.

But, “Naah, naah, naah,” Jou responds. “I got a steady job now, don’t I? I could buy this whole store if I wanted to.”

Jounuchi Katsuya, whose mind immediately goes from a gig teaching Intermediate students. _A temporary contract…_ This was Kaiba Mokuba, going on 18, who handles accounting for KaibaCorp and for the Academy. _Nii-xama told me, he said. You’re subject to the same performance reviews as all the other teachers. If you don’t live up to our standards, we will have to let you go._ From this though, Jou’s optimism spins him a future as a billionaire… And maybe finally, being equal to his on-again/off-again boyfriend, Kaiba Seto.

Yuugi just laughs. “Of course, Jounuchi-kun.” They find a table. One of those dainty ones with the wire chairs that you find at bakeries. Jou’s trayful of delicacies takes up practically the whole thing, and a mille feuille tries to make a break for the floor, until Jou nabs it and eats it. Yuugi, boggling a little: “You’re really going to eat all that?”

“Guy works up an appetite teaching classes.” Jou chomps a tarte aux pommes, apples oozing onto his fingers. “You didn’t tell me it was so hard.”

Yuugi laughs again. “I’ll bet you’re going to eat a big dinner tonight too.” He eats some of his own ice cream. “You were going to tell me where Mai is?”

“I saw her after the Exhibition Duel.” Jou’s tossing macarons into his mouth now. A lavender one, and a cocoa-flavored one, and so forth. “She said she was going to dinner with Pegasus.” He stops, swallows, looks at his best friend. “I hope she knows what she’s doing.”

Yuugi, aware of his friend’s feelings for Kujaku Mai: “She’s a big girl, you know. She can take care of herself.”

“Yeah, I can remember some of the ways she’s taken care of herself,” Jou says. “I hope she knows what she’s doing. Pegasus can be nice, sure, but he’s crazy. You know he’s crazy, Yuug.”

“He’s certainly eccentric, but I don’t think he’s crazy. That was just the Eye.”

There is a backstory here: A certain portrait, that Yuugi and his friends weren’t supposed to see, but they saw it anyway. A diary that they weren’t supposed to read, that told of a young man, desperate after the loss of his blonde beloved, and the lengths he went to, trying to bring her back. Yuugi’s pretty sure Pegasus isn’t like this anymore, Jounuchi is fairly certain of that as well. Still though, still… Let’s put it this way, if Kujaku Mai were, say, a brunette, with brown eyes or maybe green eyes, instead of a blue-eyed blonde? Both the two friends would have felt a lot more comfortable.

“I’m sure it’s just dinner.” Yuugi’s confident tone is meant to reassure himself, as well as Jounuchi. “Anyway, aren’t you going out with her tomorrow night?”

“Yeah. She’ll tell me if anything weird happened.”

She probably wouldn’t. Mai is historically close-mouthed when it comes to talking about her troubles. The hopeful words do their job though; Yuugi and Jou both feel reassured. And meanwhile, across town...

__________________________

There are some fairly expensive hotels in Domino City. These have the usual luxurious suites and penthouses, just as if the Queen of England were planning to stop by with all her wealthiest friends. Pegasus, of course, has the most luxurious suite, in the most expensive hotel. Mai was expecting dinner at a fancy restaurant, but she makes no complaint when instead, it’s intimate, tete-a-tete, served in Pegasus’ suite.

The scene becomes her. Aged 30, not that she'd never tell anyone her real age, but that’s it more or less, Mai is pretty much at the peak of her beauty. Her hair glows against the elegant neutrals of walls and curtains, and her perfectly-toned body looks like it was made to sit on exactly this supremely expensive gold-and-beige chair. Only her hands are wrong: Just a little too efficient in their motions, for the ornamental look she’s attempting.

Pegasus clearly doesn’t care though. His own dinner finished, he toys with a glass of wine, watching with appreciation while Mai enjoys French pastries so tiny and perfect they put the ones at the bakery downtown to shame. Everything about her is like a work of art. Patrick Nagel comes to mind, or Tamara de Lempicka, at her most Art Deco. A fantastic world of 80’s-style beauty, from the days when they were both babies.

...Not to mention, how wonderful it is to be with somebody practically his own age for once. Duel Monsters: A game for babies. And of course he’s not going to hang around with the crass elderly real estate tycoons who are his father’s friends.

“Why did we never do this before, Mai?” Pegasus takes a macaroon. A bright pink one. “It should be Funny Bunny flavored,” he comments before biting into it.

“Maybe because you say things like, ‘That macaron should be Funny Bunny flavored?’” Mai takes one of the pink macarons and bites into it. “Raspberry.”

“I know. Much better than cartoon-flavor.” Pegasus finishes his, dusting his hands meticulously free of crumbs when he’s done. “Although… An idea: Licensed Duel Monsters desserts. Mai, what do you think? Or snacks. Little kids love snacks.” He stops, looks at Mai with a face that’s suddenly almost serious. “Do you ever get fed-up with this racket, Mai? Children-children-children,wherever you turn. Don’t you ever long for some adult company?”

“You’re admitting you don’t count.” Mai turns him a flirty look, from under long eyelashes. Then, more seriously, “I’m a teacher, Pegasus. Teachers work with kids. And my free time is my own. After I leave work, I can do whatever I want. Even dating men who talk about Bunny-flavored desserts.

A nod. “Point taken.-- As I said Mai, why didn’t we ever do this before?”

“Oh, apocalyptic threats…” Mai waves a pastry airly as she speaks. “Ancient Egyptian spirits, and crazy people stealing souls, and so on.” She smiles. “Kudos on the duel today, Pegasus. Who’d have thought you could still win with a Toon Monster deck?”

“And against all those Blue-Eyes.” Pegasus grins. “Kaiba must have been ready to die.”

“Most advanced student at the Academy. Kaiba helped him build his deck. -- Of course you can design whatever cards will make your deck better, can’t you?”

He grins again. “Any cards I want. My Toons, or anything else. -- You know, I was thinking the game could use some new Harpies. What does your deck need, Mai? Effects Monsters? Traps? Spells?”

“Let’s talk about that later. I don’t feel like talking about Duel Monsters right now.”

Neither does Pegasus, for that matter. He can think of lots of things he’d rather talk about… and do.

This is when he gives Mai a tour of his suite. Just as if she’d never seen a hotel suite before, but she plays along. And to be fair, this one is pretty luxe, even by the standards Kujaku Mai is used to. They tour the whole place, and somehow they end up in the bathroom.

“This tub is like a swimming pool,” Mai says to Pegasus. “You could fit three people in here.”

“Yes. ...Or two, having an extremely good time.”

Another of those sidelong glances under the lashes. “Are you propositioning me, Pegasus?”

“Maybe… Is it working?”

“Maybe… Do you want it to, Pegasus?”

“Oh so much, Mai.” For once in his life, he’s being totally sincere. And she responds, and what follows is almost sweet, almost romantic, as well as very, very pleasurable for both of them.

__________________________

The next day Mai wakes up late. She has a class to teach in an hour, but Pegasus has already called the Academy and said she’s out for the day. High-handed? Very. They spend the whole day pampering themselves until finally she can’t stay mad. You have to like a guy who knows where to get the perfect French-topped manicure, then follows it up with a leather bag that just screams Paris. By the time they get to the champagne lunch al fresco, Pegasus is back in her good graces. He invites her to spend a week with him in America, and she agrees. The week turns into a month, and then that turns into a permanent arrangement. Pegasus and Mai are a thing now, or Mai and Pegasus, as she prefers to call it.

The Academy? Pfft. Teachers are a dime a dozen, and anyway, isn’t it nice to treat yourself for a change? And Pegasus is a wonderful companion, once you get past the Bunnies and the Toons. He’s cultured, and charming in his own way, and Mai is very happy.

 _This brings us to the present day:_ There is a kit. Mai bought it at the store herself. She didn’t want Crocketts knowing, and maybe saying something to “Master Pegasus.” She uses it. She’s not surprised when the results are positive. Why doesn’t she tell Pegasus about it right away?

Maybe she doesn’t want him hovering. 36 isn’t old to have a baby, is it? But Pegasus will probably think so, after his wife died in childbirth. Anyway, has she decided for sure that she’s having the kid yet? Because it doesn’t feel like she has. Kujaku Mai likes being free, she likes being able to focus on… well, Kujaku Mai, mostly. Sometimes on Pegasus as well. Usually she likes that. Having a bun in the oven though… Makes you start thinking about the next generation. You start asking yourself questions. Then maybe, you want to talk to someone else. Not Pegasus. Because, _hovering_. There’s one person Mai always feels comfortable talking to, about pretty much everything. Now she wants to talk to him. She picks up the phone.

“Jounuchi Katsuya please.” Kaiba’s butler? He’s living with Kaiba now? Gods, how long has it been since Mai really talked to him?


End file.
